


Four Times Alexander Noticed Eliza (And One Time She Noticed Him)

by sakura_freefall



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angelica is a Good Friend, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Getting Together, Hamliza, Just Self-Indulgent Hamliza Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, Stressed Alexander Hamilton, four plus one things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26995648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakura_freefall/pseuds/sakura_freefall
Summary: Alex is an overworked college student with a serious coffee addiction.Eliza is a barista at a local cafe who absolutely refuses to give Alexander any more espresso shots.In other words, they're basically soulmates.
Relationships: Alexander Hamilton/Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	Four Times Alexander Noticed Eliza (And One Time She Noticed Him)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing for Hamliza, so please be nice to me.
> 
> (You may understand a reference to another Broadway tragedy, without my having to name the play, in both the name of the cafe and the identity of Angelica's friend's friend's teacher-punching boyfriend ;) As I said, this is pure self-indulgence.)
> 
> Drop a comment (they make my day) or leave a kudos if you enjoyed!!

1)

"Alexander, where are you?" Alex checks his phone to recieve a harried voice-mail from his ever-infuritating roommate, Aaron Burr. Seeing as he's studying law while Alex is majoring in English with an American History minor, it's a given that they have little patience for each others' interests. And the legalistic Aaron would most definately not approve of the fact that Alexander is currently on the roof of a dorm room reading a book instead of studying. He's not supposed to be on the dorm room roof, but then again, nobody's supposed to do anything around here.

He texts Aaron the location of the first coffee place that pops into his mind- a locally owned, ethically sourced (says his best friend and lab partner Angelica), cafe called the Musain. He's never actually been there, just knows that Angelica has a friend- Ep something- who goes there for a social justice club that Alexander would look into, except for the fact that he has literally no spare time. Hopefully this will alleviate any suspicion on Burr's part, and he can go back to reading his book in peace.

It goes south when Aaron texts him back telling him that he's been asked to pick him up from wherever he is. Probably some professor found out about the seventeen overdue library books or something. Which means that Alexander has to get moving right now, or else Burr will arrive at the Musain to discover absolutely no Alexander. And probably call the cops. Or the university security. Or Angelica's friend's friend's boyfriend, who's a little famous in these parts for punching a teacher in the face after said teacher made a sexist comment or something. Okay, maybe that's a little too far. Burr probably has no idea who that even is, but Alex's mind has a tendancy to jump to the worst-case scenario.

The sign read _Musain_ and it seems to be a regular coffee shop full of regular students catching up with friends or working. Alex steps inside and goes to the front to order the most caffeinated item he can see, and 

Oh crap.

In Alexander's nineteen years of life, which included one very awkward crush on Angelica (that was a long time ago, back in high school), and one _very_ awkward relationship with his good friend John Laurens (that was also a long time ago, back in freshman year), nobody has ever captured Alex's attention the way the cafe barista did.

She's short (still taller than him, but he's aware that he's absolutely tiny), with long black hair, brown eyes, and a smile that lights up the entire room. Alex's brain takes one second to realize that he's acting like somebody in the dumb romance novels that Angelica's little sister's girlfriend- geez, everyone he knows he seems to know by way of Angelica- likes to read.

Then his brain continues the monologue of oh-crap-she's-hot. He doesn't even notice that he's at the front of the line, and said barista- the nametag reads _Eliza-_ is asking him worriedly what he would like, and is he okay?

"Espresso?" He replies, brain frazzled.

"Um," she replies, looking a little uncomfortable. How long has Alex been standing there? "That'll be 5 dollars." He wordlessly pulls a bill out of his purse (she gives it back, pointing out that that was a _ten_ dollar bill, which further embarasses Alexander, who has to search through his wallet for the correct amount of money) and stumbles over to a table to wait for his coffee (and his insufferable roommate/friend/archnemesis).

2)

Alex finds himself coming back to the Musain. The coffee was really good, the atmosphere was nice, it had working heating (unlike some other coffee places he could mention), it wasn't usually too loud, and a million other reasons he'd think of later.

It wasn't because of the cute barista, Eliza. No, definately not. No way.

He walks up to the register, manages not to freeze when Eliza smiles at him and takes his order (espresso, as per usual), and sits down at a little table, turning on his earbuds to block out the sound of a large group of students at the corner table muttering and yelling at each other. He pulls out his laptop to work on his essay, but he's distracted yet again by Eliza, who is _really really pretty._

"Espresso for A dot Ham?" she calls. Heck, even her voice is pretty.

"Uh, that's me," he says, reaching for his cup, trying not to look too much at Eliza- he doesn't want to be a creep- and manages to spill the hot liquid all over, well, everything.

"Crap! I'm sorry!" he calls, while he can hear Eliza mutter something a little stronger under her breath. "It's- I'll go get some towels?"

"It's fine," she says, laughing a little. She points to one of the people in the corner area- a bald guy- "He and his friends spill stuff all the time. I've seen worse."

Alexander flees the building before he can further embarass himself.

3)

"Hey, dearest Alexander," Angelica says sarcastically, poking him in the arm.

"What?"

"I was thinking we could go and grab coffee? My sister works at a place nearby and I told her I'd come say hi." To anyone else, this would seem like flirting, but Angelica and Alexander have had their (extremely awkward and uncomfortable) romance period, and now there's no unsaid implications.

"Oh. Sure. Lemme just, grab the books and stuff."

"Are these by any chance your contraband library books for which you have several dollars worth of fines for?" Angelica asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not going to answer that," he responds, shoving them into a drawer.

It's a brisk autumn day when they approach the Musain. Alex is a little surprised, because what are the chances that of all five or six coffee places in the general area, it happens to be this one, with Eliza. He wonders for a moment if Eliza's in fact Angelica's sister, but decides against it. He knows Angelica has two sisters, Peggy, who's a senior in high school, and another one who's a college freshman, but he's never met the second one. Alex and Angelica met in senior year, and when said sister was studying abroad in England.

"Um, I just remembered, I have no clue who your sister is."

Angelica rolls her eyes. "Her name's Eliza. Dark hair. Talks a lot. Average height."

"Wait, Eliza?" Things just got five times more complicated.

"You know her?"

Alexander thinks through the embarassing incidents of the previous week. "Um, we've met. Or at least, I've seen her. Like, at the coffee place. Yeah."

"Alexander," says Angelica slowly. "Your cheeks are pink."

"It's cold."

"Not _that_ cold!"

"Alexander, please tell me you do not have a thing for my little sister."

Alex decides to play stupid and hope the subject changes. "Peggy? Naw. And isn't she with someone already anyways?"

"Stop acting dumb, Alex. I mean Eliza. Do you have a thing for Eliza?"

Alex considers that he's only seen Eliza two or three times in his entire life. And from what he can tell, she's nice. And cute. But does he have a thing for her? Maybe? He thinks about how his brain felt like it was frozen over, and how he'd felt himself smiling giddily when she laughed.

Oh, gosh. He totally has a thing for Eliza.

"Um, sort of?"

"If you hurt her, I will cut your face off and throw it in the Atlantic Ocean," she states bluntly. "My cinnamon roll of a sister is far too good for you, you delinquent coffee gremlin."

"Hey!"

"I'm majoring in Political Sciences," she retorts. "Insulting people is like, part of the course."

"Wait, really?"

"No. Come on, her shift ends soon." And Alex reluctantly follows her into the cafe.

4)

"Yo I'm John Laurens in the place to be! Two pints of straight coffee and I'm working on three!" John yells, pouring the rest of his coffee down his throat like it's a shot. Alex shakes his head as Laf hits the _record_ button, laughing. 

"John, darling, we talked about this," pouted Alex, looking fake-hurt.

"But Alex!" he moans, playing along.

"Honey, we discussed this! No jumping on tables in public places!"

"But I waaant to!" John says, pretending to wipe tears off his face.

"Fine! I'm leaving you!" shouts Alex. "I'm leaving you and your table jumping for someone else!"

"Go ahead! I don't love you anyways!" John responds, and Hercules and Laf pretend to be shocked. 

"This was why you two broke up, wasn't it," asked Herc.

"No," says Alex, playfully swinging an arm around John. "It was because we _discussed it and decided we'd rather be friends."_

"But between you and me, Alex, it was totally the table jumping," John whispers loudly.

"And the turtle incident," says Alex in response.

"We don't speak of that!" yells Laf. "We solemnly promised _not_ to speak of that dreadful day!"

A girl with long, dark hair approaches them, looking like she's trying to stifle laughter.

"Alexander, how many espresso shots have you had?" _Crap,_ thinks Alex. It's Eliza. How much of that did she hear?

"Um, like, four?" He'd stopped keeping track somewhere along the line.

"Oh my gosh," she says, shaking her head. "No more coffee for you, A-dot-Ham."

BONUS:

It's a beautiful evening. Eliza, his girlfriend of three years, sits across from him on a park bench. So much has happened.

He'd graduated from college two years ago with his degree, and was now in part-time grad school on a scholarship. Eliza had just finished undergrad last year, and she was planning on working as a counselor with a psych degree. Angelica had finished her poli-sci and moved to London, saying she wanted to "leave this rubbish bin of a country while she had the chance, no offense", and the two kept in touch through emails, text, and the occasional snail-mail letter.

John had finished his courses on marine biology and was out working on the California coast doing an internship with a research place. Peggy and her own steady girlfriend, Maria, were both at a different university, studying mathematics and art, repsectively. Hercules had gone to trade school and was working on starting a clothing line, of all things. Laf had gone back to France, and was now working with, in a weird twist of fate, Angelica's friend's friend's teacher-punching boyfriend (well, husband now) on some sort of social justice thing. Alexander didn't know exactly what it was. His knowledge of French politics was poor at best. Even Aaron Burr had gotten his law degree and was steadily plowing through papers at a nearby firm. They stayed in contact.

For now, he sits, getting lost in the sunset. The orange of the sky matches the maple leaves falling around them. He feels Eliza shift her weight, and looks over to find his lovely girlfriend on one knee, pulling a small box out of her pocket.

"Alexander, three years, four months, and twenty-eight days ago, I met you at the Cafe Musain. Those three years, four months, and twenty-eight days have been the best part of my life. Even when you had to go to New York for your school in senior year, you wrote me a letter nightly. My life got even better every letter that you'd write me. I'm helplessly in love with you, and I hope you'll do me the honor of being my husband and spending the rest of our lives together. A dot Ham, drinker of coffee, writer of letters, and love of my life, will you marry me?"

Alexander feels something warm grow inside of his chest, and it bursts with a flood of light. "Yes!"

Eliza pulls him forward and kisses him, laughing. "Thank goodness," she smiles, "Angelica said if I waited any longer, she was going to ask you to be her brother-in-law herself!"

"She did not." That is something Angelica would do.

"She did," confirms Eliza, ruffling his hair.

"Well, whatever way, I'm glad my roommate Aaron Burr texted me asking where I was all that time ago," he laughs, remembering vaguely that late autumn day, not unlike this one.

"You'll have to tell me the story on our way back," Eliza says happily, as they walk down the cobblestone path together.


End file.
